From ages to ages, God is God. He is everlasting and He is before all things (Colossians 1:17). Every biblical story begins with God at the forefront, He is the point of everything, like Colossians puts it, “All things were created by Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). This is the premise of the bible: it is not about you, nor is it about me but it is about God. God is the one who creates the world, He is the one who restores the fallen world, He is the one who saves the world, He is the one who justifies and glorifies people, He is the one who makes us children of light. We on the other hand do nothing but simply respond. It is with such a view in mind that we are called to “apply ourselves to knowledge” (Proverbs 23:12), with such a view, we are called to revere the Lord. Our mission on this earth is to behold our God. The more we behold Him, the easier it is for us to understand our smallness, “petiteness”, and fragility. Part of us doing that is by applying ourselves to His knowledge.
In the bible, those who were able to apply themselves to the knowledge and wisdom of God, excelled in everything. Their lives were spent the right way, they had no time to waste on earthly pleasures or on the flesh because they were crucifying themselves daily. Approaching God with the mindset that He is God and you are not, puts things in perspective, it allows you to change everything about your interaction with him. It shows in the way you enter into His presence, in the way you address Him, in the way you pray, in the way you intercede and finally in the way you interact with others. In truth, all our problems would be resolved if we only knew how to put God in His place and stay in ours. We are called to be heavenly minded, to focus on the things above and not on earthly things (Colossians 3:2); we are told to not be conformed to the pattern of this world but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). One of the main tools we have in the bible is the word of God which teaches us first about God and also about our response to Him. We are given the armour of the Christian and how to fight against our enemy the devil; we are also told that the fight is in the mind; because we are no longer under the dominion of darkness but under the kingdom of Jesus (Colossians 1:13), we are no longer our own, and we now have a new way of life. The old is gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Part of living in the new is to saturate ourselves with the ways and principles of the new kingdom, we have to learn how to conform ourselves with the pattern of the kingdom of God. By applying ourselves to knowledge, we are able to eliminate what was holding us captive, and live like the free men and women we are. Applying ourselves to knowledge is not simply reading the bible, it is not simply memorizing the bible, it is not simply meditating the bible, it is not simply living the bible out but it is a combination of all that. The merriam-webster dictionary defines “applying yourself” as working hard to complete a task successfully. So, to apply yourself to knowledge would mean working hard to become knowledgeable. Therefore, to apply yourself to something is to be so good at it that you become one with the thing you have applied yourself to. God calls us to intimacy with Him, He calls us to complete surrender to Him, He calls us to give Him our all so that our all can be applied to Him. God desires for us to be so into Him that we literally become one with Him, we identify with Him. Indeed, as image bearers, we do reflect God, as born-again people we identify with Him yet this identification is even more tangible when we apply ourselves to His knowledge. David says in the longest Psalm, “how can a young man keep his ways pure? By living according to the word of God” (Psalm 119:9). In many other Psalms he would say something to the extent of “teach me your ways, that I might not sin against you”. This is a form of applying yourself to knowledge. So how does one do that specifically? The truth is, you have to be willing to sacrifice because applying yourself to something involves a cost. Be it time, energy, money, friendships, etc. you will have to give up certain things to be able to apply yourself to the knowledge of God. Sometimes, this might even cost you your own family because as you start changing, as you start rejecting old habits, and getting new habits you might find yourself at odds with those you are close knit with. But as the bible tells us, we are to obey God and not men. Jesus was very blunt when he was telling those that wanted to follow him to not look back and to count the cost. He often compared the kingdom of God to that of a widow who lost a coin and put on a light, then swept her house, and looked for her lost coin until she found it (Luke 15:10). In another parable he compared the kingdom of God to a man who found a treasure hidden in a field and sold all he had to get this treasure (Matthew 13:44). The point is, the kingdom of God is precious, you do not lose it and you work very hard to keep it, even selling all you have.
As we apply ourselves to the knowledge of God and His ways, we are able to make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10), and working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). Therefore, I must press forward, holding onto faith, sacrificing all that I am in order to gain Christ, forfeiting all that this world offers to gain that which is eternal. So whether it means giving up my time to know more of my saviour, I must do so, whether it means investing financially in books to know more about Him, I must do it, whether it means to think of others more significantly than myself, I must do so. I pray the Lord stirs our hearts to apply ourselves to His knowledge so that we can become totally His, not just in words but in deeds as well.
A Word Aptly Spoken 